John Chromczak supports same-sex marriage equality, education and fiscal responsibility.
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By TRENTON STRAUBE
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Last month, State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos attended a fundraising event for the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group. If that weren’t newsworthy enough, he introduced and endorsed New York’s first openly gay Senate hopeful, John Chromczak. Originally from Utica, where he played cello in the Utica Symphony Orchestra, Chromczak is a licensed medical technologist and former substitute teacher. He lives in south Manhattan—the 25th District—with his partner Andre and their dog Bono. He spoke with The Blade about his election bid, gay Republicans and the financial crisis.
You’re in a heavily Democratic District. Is it a challenge to get people to listen to you?
For whatever reasons, people are more receptive than before. I do think that when I say that I’m gay they’ll listen a bit more.
So being a gay Republican can play to your favor among the Democrats?
Yes, because people assume that if you’re gay you’re liberal. Not a lot of that is true. The gay community allows certain people to steal our voice and let them do all the talking. I won’t do that.
Walk me through the process of how you become a Senate contender, specifically how you approached GOP leaders and when you came out to them.
Last November, I sent an e-mail to the New York County Republican Party and asked if anyone was running for state Senate in the 25th District. They said no. Lisa Black, who is the press liaison for the Senate majority leader, put me in touch with Joe Bruno [who resigned earlier this year]. I met with him on several occasions to talk about why I was doing this—same with Sen. Dean Skelos [who replaced Bruno]. When I said I happen to be gay, there was excitement —especially from Skelos—because he knows we have to reach out to more people and he thought it was a great opportunity to show the diversity of the party.
Is this indicative of larger changes within the GOP?
Yes, but I also think, in a wider scope, it’s the acceptance of society in general. For so long, if you’re a heterosexual with a family, your only exposure to the gay community is the Pride parade, so you’re probably not going to want to support a lot of gay causes. We need to demystify what it means to be homosexual. I’m part of that.
Speaking of demystifying. How do you reconcile the GOP’s anti-gay right-wing rhetoric with the fact that you’re gay?
I don’t think we’ve been hijacked by the right wing party—we just let them drive the car too long, and we need to get back to the middle of the road. Also, there’s a huge difference between the state and national party. But there are some core beliefs. The big banner of the Republican Party in New York is more moderate, but we still consider ourselves Republican for fiscal reasons.
You openly support same-sex marriage equality.
Socially, I believe gay marriage is a pro-family agenda. I think granting gay marriage is ultimately going to save lives. For every child becoming aware of whether they’re gay or lesbian, when they see that yes I can get married, that will help them with the social pressures that push them into drugs and a promiscuous life. We see that all the time in the gay community. It’s horrible.
What non-gay issues do you champion in your campaign?
We need to finish the single most important construction project of today: the World Trade Center. Look at London, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore—they’re close to knocking New York off as being the financial center of the world. We need to demonstrate to the world that we are No. 1 and we can be a competitive and modern financial hub.
And the Fulton Street [subway] stop in my district. It’s still a pit. Because we allow state government through the MTA to spend and spend and spend and not be beholden to the taxpayer.
The other thing I’m passionate about is education. I taught school. We still need to update our school systems from a 19th century model. We need to put investment in education, but wisely.
How do you distinguish yourself from Daniel Squadron, your Democratic opponent?
I put my money where my mouth is. Dan Squadron’s big thing is “Chuck Schumer, Chuck Schumer, Chuck Schumer, I worked for [U.S. Sen.] Chuck Schumer.” Well, Chuck Schumer doesn’t support gay marriage—he supported the Defense of Marriage Act, which to me was a punch in the gut. I don’t think Squadron, if elected to the Senate, will push that [marriage] issue.
If you read our biographies, more Democrats would have more in common with myself. I’m an 1199 member and have been in three unions. When I was Squadron’s age, I was part of a committee that negotiated contracts between the American Federation of Musicians and the orchestra I was a member of to ensure we were getting fair pay. He’s never had an experience like that.
You represent the Wall Street area and part of Brooklyn. How is this financial crisis affecting your district?
On the Brooklyn side, It’ll adversely affect school construction in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. In the Financial District, real estate down there has been converted into apartments and condominiums. [The crisis will] have an effect on selling and renting those, which will affect the tax base.
What would you do on a state level to remedy the financial situation?
Freeze spending and hold taxes. We can’t increase spending year after year when there’s no money. Unfortunately, there’ll have to be cuts on a state budget level, we just have to prioritize what areas will be affected the most.
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